The Bourne Ultimatum (film)
The Bourne Ultimatum is a 2007 American spy film directed by Paul Greengrass and loosely based[1] on the Robert Ludlum novel of the same name. This film is the third in the Bourne film series, being preceded by The Bourne Identity (2002) and The Bourne Supremacy (2004). The fourth movie, The Bourne Legacy, is scheduled for release in July 2012.
Matt Damon reprises his role as Ludlum's signature character, former CIA assassin and psychogenic amnesiac[2] Jason Bourne. The film picks up storyline from the previous film, and continues Bourne's saga after he escapes from authorities in Moscow. The script was written by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns, George Nolfi and an uncredited Tom Stoppard.[3] The producers were Patrick Crowley, Frank Marshall, Paul L. Sandberg, and Doug Liman.
The Bourne Ultimatum was produced by Universal Pictures and was released on August 3, 2007, in North America, where it grossed $69.3 million in ticket sales in its first weekend of release, making it the highest August opening in the U.S.[4] and Matt Damon's highest grossing film with him as the lead role. Although all three films have been commercially successful and critically acclaimed, The Bourne Ultimatum is the only film in the trilogy to have been nominated for any Academy Awards, winning all three of its nominations for Best Film Editing, Best Sound, and Best Sound Editing at the 80th Academy Awards.
Plot
Wounded by a gunshot from Russian assassin Kirill (in the previous film, The Bourne Supremacy), Jason Bourne evades Moscow police and goes into hiding. Six weeks later, Guardian correspondent Simon Ross (Paddy Considine) meets with someone to discuss Bourne and Operation Treadstone. Bourne goes to Paris to inform Marie's brother, Martin (Daniel Brühl), that she is dead. The CIA begin tracking Ross after he mentions "Operation Blackbriar" over a cell phone call. Bourne travels to London where he asks to meet with Ross at Waterloo Station after learning that Ross has been investigating Operation Treadstone. When Bourne realizes that the CIA are tracking Ross, he helps Ross evade capture, but Ross deviates from Bourne's instructions and is killed by Blackbriar assassin Paz on orders from Operation Blackbriar's director Noah Vosen.CIA Director Ezra Kramer sends Pamela Landy, who had hunted Bourne six weeks earlier unsuccessfully, to help Vosen shortly after he spots Bourne in a CCTV camera feed. After searching Ross' notes, they figure out that Ross' source was Neal Daniels, CIA Station Chief in Madrid, who was formerly involved in Treadstone and is actively involved in Blackbriar. Bourne, having taken Ross' bag shortly after he was killed, is led to Daniels' Madrid office but finds it empty. After he incapacitates a CIA team sent by Vosen and Landy, Nicky Parsons arrives. She decides to help Bourne, telling him that Daniels has fled to Tangier and helping him escape another incoming CIA team. It's indicated that Parsons and Bourne had a deep, possibly romantic relationship before he lost his memory.
Upon arriving in Tangier, Parsons tries to track Daniels' location but is unable to, finding that Blackbriar "asset" (assassin) Desh Bouksani has been tasked with killing Daniels. Vosen learns that Parsons logged in to access information about Daniels and sends Desh after Parsons and Bourne, a decision Landy disagrees with. It is later revealed in a conversation between Kramer and Vosen that they plan to use Landy as a scapegoat if anything goes wrong. Bourne manages to follow Desh to Daniels, but fails to prevent Daniels' death by a planted bomb. Bourne manages to kill Desh in a brutal fight before Desh can kill Parsons. Bourne subsequently sends Parsons into hiding. Bourne examines the contents of Daniels' charred briefcase and finds the address of the deep cover CIA bureau in New York City where Vosen directs Blackbriar. Bourne travels to New York City; Landy receives a phone call from Bourne (in a repetition of the final scene of The Bourne Supremacy), which is revealed to be tapped by Vosen. Landy thanks Bourne for the tape he sent her which revealed the corrupt dealings of former Treadstone director Ward Abbott; she also tells him that his real name is David Webb and his birthdate is 4/15/71. While speaking to Landy, Bourne notices Vosen storing highly classified materials in a safe in his office. Bourne tells Landy to "get some rest" because she "looks tired", which she and Vosen both understand to mean that Bourne is watching her. Vosen intercepts a text to Landy from Bourne of a location to meet up and leaves his office with a team to follow Landy and capture Bourne. Bourne breaks into Vosen's office and steals classified Blackbriar documents. Vosen sends Paz after Bourne, the two finally encountering each other in a car chase which ends with Paz forcing Bourne's stolen police car to crash into a concrete divider. Bourne gets out and holds Paz at gunpoint before sparing his life and continuing on to 415 East 71st Street, memories of which were triggered by the false birthday he was given by Landy. Vosen also figures out Landy's code and warns Dr. Albert Hirsch, who ran Treadstone's behavior modification program, that Bourne is coming.
Landy meets Bourne at the building where she tells him that she's helping him because she hadn't signed up for things like Treadstone and Blackbriar. Bourne gives her the Blackbriar files before going inside. Landy starts faxing the files to an unknown receiver, and is found by Vosen as the last page is successfully sent. Bourne encounters Hirsch in an upper level and, with Hirsch's help, remembers that he volunteered for the program. He states that he is no longer Jason Bourne and flees to the roof from Vosen's pursuing CIA team. Bourne is confronted on the roof by Paz, who asks Bourne why he did not kill him. Bourne asks Paz if he even knows why he is supposed to kill him and repeats the dying words of a Treadstone assassin Bourne killed (in The Bourne Identity): "Look at us. Look at what they make you give." Paz lowers his gun as Bourne runs to jump off the roof, but Vosen appears and shoots at Bourne as he leaps into the East River below. Some time later, Landy is shown testifying against Blackbriar before the Senate while Parsons is watching a television news broadcast about the exposure of Operation Blackbriar, the arrests of Hirsch and Vosen, a criminal investigation against Kramer for authorizing the operation, and that David Webb, a.k.a. Jason Bourne, was reportedly shot and fell into the East River. Upon hearing that his body has not been found after a three-day search, Parsons smiles; Bourne is shown swimming away under water after his fall.
Cast
- Matt Damon as Jason Bourne/David Webb, former top operative for the black ops Operation Treadstone. Bourne takes on the task of finding out who made him what he was and why.
- Julia Stiles as Nicky Parsons, Bourne's former Treadstone contact in Paris. She is the only character besides Bourne and Marie Kreutz (who only appears in flashbacks in The Bourne Ultimatum) to appear in all three films.
- David Strathairn as Noah Vosen, CIA Deputy Director in charge of the new Treadstone black ops upgrade called Operation Blackbriar, and the film's principal antagonist. He considers Bourne a threat to the operation and sets out to kill him.
- Joan Allen as Pamela Landy, CIA Deputy Director and Task Force Chief, sent in to aid Vosen in tracking down Bourne. No-nonsense and tough as nails, she later proves to be Bourne's key ally.
- Albert Finney as Dr. Albert Hirsch
- Scott Glenn as Ezra Kramer, Director of the CIA
- Colin Stinton as Neal Daniels, CIA Station Chief in Madrid
- Joey Ansah as Desh
- Edgar Ramirez as Paz
- Tom Gallop as Tom Cronin, Pamela Landy's assistant
- Corey Johnson as Ray Wills, Vosen's deputy at Operation Blackbriar
- Franka Potente (uncredited) as Marie Helena Kreutz, Bourne's murdered girlfriend
- Daniel Brühl as Martin Kreutz, Marie's half brother
- Scott Atkin as Agent Kiley
- Paddy Considine as Simon Ross, a reporter for London's Guardian newspaper.
Production
The Bourne Ultimatum was filmed at Pinewood Studios near London and in multiple locations around the world, including Tangier, London, Paris, Madrid (as itself and double for Turin), Berlin (as double for Moscow), New York City, and other locations in the U.S.[5]
References to previous films
Within the series
In the audio commentary for the DVD release of The Bourne Ultimatum, director Paul Greengrass confirmed the following scenes were deliberate allusions to scenes from the previous installments of the Bourne film franchise.[6] They include:- The opening chase sequence of The Bourne Ultimatum is a continuation of the Russian police attempts to capture Bourne in Moscow near the end of The Bourne Supremacy and takes place soon after Bourne's apology to Neski's daughter in the previous film.
- The scene where Bourne tells Martin of his girlfriend Marie's death is very similar to the ending of The Bourne Supremacy, when Bourne apologizes to the Neskis' daughter for killing her parents.
- The scene where Bourne crashes through a window to attack Desh is similar to the scene where Castel attacked Bourne in The Bourne Identity.
- After Bourne tells Nicky she will have to run, Nicky dyes and cuts her hair, similar to the scene in The Bourne Identity with Marie dyeing and cutting her hair. She even cuts and dyes her hair into an identical style.
- During the car chase with Paz, Bourne's car is destroyed in a similar fashion to Kirill's in the climax of The Bourne Supremacy. The sequence also includes similar staging, such as Bourne walking up to Paz with gun in hand but deciding not to shoot.
- In the rooftop climax, Bourne tells Paz, "Look at us. Look at what they make you give", reiterating the dying words of The Professor (Clive Owen) in The Bourne Identity.
- The scene at the end of The Bourne Supremacy in which Bourne tells Landy she looks tired is in The Bourne Ultimatum.
- The ending of The Bourne Ultimatum, with Bourne floating motionless in the East River, links the opening scene of The Bourne Identity, which utilizes a similar image. The music in both scenes is also repeated.
- Operation Blackbriar is referred to at the very end of The Bourne Identity by Conklin's superior, Ward Abbott.
- One of the "terminated" victims files taken from Vosen's safe by Bourne has a photo of Richard Chamberlain, the original Jason Bourne. It does not identify him by name and is labeled as "US Citizen Classified."
- Bourne says "This is real" on two occasions: in The Bourne Supremacy when Marie questions whether the man he spotted in Goa was actually an assassin; and in The Bourne Ultimatum when trying to convince the journalist Ross that he is in danger at Waterloo Station. On both occasions, the character Bourne is speaking to is dead at the end of the scene.
Outside of the series
- The scene featuring Bourne desperately trying to catch a glimpse of Paz in the London Underground after Ross is gunned down is, according to Greengrass, a "wink" to the New York City Subway chase in one of his favorite films, The French Connection.[7]
- The explosion scene set in Tangiers echoes the famous "cafe" explosion scene from the film The Battle of Algiers.[original research?]
- The rooftop chase scene in Tangier bears a strong resemblance to a scene in the 1987 Bond film The Living Daylights in which James Bond is also involved in a chase across the rooftops of Tangier.[original research?]
Music
As with the previous films in the trilogy, the score was composed by John Powell. A new version of Moby's "Extreme Ways", entitled "Extreme Ways (Bourne's Ultimatum)", was recorded for the film's end credits.Release
- Benefit premiere — A premiere of The Bourne Ultimatum was held in downtown Oklahoma City on July 31, 2007, at Harkins Bricktown Theaters[8] to benefit The Children's Center, located in suburban Bethany. The film was shown simultaneously on three screens. Matt Damon was at the event to greet guests.
- UK premiere — The film premiered at Leicester Square in London on August 15, 2007, with Matt Damon, Julia Stiles and Joan Allen attending. The film was released the next day.[9]
- Australian premiere — The film premiered in Sydney on August 8, 2007, at the State Theatre, with Matt Damon attending.
- Boise Contemporary Theater Advanced Screening — An advanced screening of The Bourne Ultimatum was held at The Egyptian Theatre to benefit Boise Contemporary Theater on July 30, 2007. Producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy and actor Matt Damon were in attendance.[10]
- Home Video Release — The film was released on both DVD and HD DVD Combo Format on December 11, 2007 in North America.[12] The DVD was released in both Fullscreen and 2.35:1 Widescreen aspect ratios. The HD DVD and DVD special features[13] includes several deleted scenes, featurettes, audio commentary, and exclusively on the HD DVD version, HDi Interactive Format features such as Picture-in-Picture Video Commentary.
In addition to the stand alone DVD release, there is a limited edition 'The Jason Bourne Collection' gift set, featuring all three films on DVD and a bonus disc with a myriad of bonus features such as deleted scenes and featurettes. The gift set features Swiss Bank safe deposit box packaging including foreign currency and a Jason Bourne passport.[14][15]
The film and special features on the HD DVD version are presented in 2:35:1 Widescreen high definition 1080i and offer Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio options.[13]
Reception
The Bourne Ultimatum earned $69.3 million during its opening weekend at the box office, a record for a single opening in August[16] and $442.8 million worldwide as of December 14, 2007.[17] As of August 2009, the film garners a 93% "Certified Fresh" rating (208 positive out of 223 reviews total) at Rotten Tomatoes,[16][18][19] The film had a rating of 85/100 on higher than either predecessor.Metacritic, again higher than the first two films.[20] At the end of its theatrical release, the film grossed at total of $227,471,070 in the U.S., making it the highest grossing film in the series.Like its predecessor, The Bourne Supremacy, the film was criticized for its overuse of "shaky camera" work, as Richard Corliss of Time magazine, in an otherwise positive review, wondered "why, in the chat scenes, the camera is afflicted with Parkinson's? The film frame trembles, obscures the speaker with the listener's shoulder, annoys viewers and distracts them from the content of the scene."[21]
In the British press, the inclusion of a fictional journalist from the real British paper The Guardian and scenes set in the United Kingdom (particularly Waterloo railway station) were commented upon. In particular, that newspaper's reviewer joked that "dodging bullets from a CIA sniper... is the sort of thing which happens to us Guardian journalists all the time."[22][23][24][25]
Top ten lists
The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.[26]- 1st — Empire
- 1st — Best Action/Adventure, Rotten Tomatoes[27]
- 2nd — Claudia Puig, USA Today
- 2nd — Steven Rea, The Philadelphia Inquirer
- 2nd — Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
- 9th — Rene Rodriguez, The Miami Herald
- 10th — Christy Lemire, Associated Press[28]
Academy Awards
- Christopher Rouse for Best Film Editing
- Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis for Best Sound
- Karen M. Baker and Per Hallberg for Best Sound Editing
Other awards
Sequel
In May 2007, prior to the release of Bourne Ultimatum, Matt Damon claimed that he would not be interested in returning for a fourth Bourne film, stating (of his participation in the Bourne franchise): "We have ridden that horse as far as we can."[30] Damon even said in an interview on The Daily Show that director Paul Greengrass joked that a fourth film could be titled "The Bourne Redundancy."[31] Nonetheless, the financial and critical success of Bourne Ultimatum has led to speculation in several magazines and Internet forums that another Bourne film might be produced. On February 22, 2008, Variety reported that a fourth film was indeed in the works, with both Damon and Greengrass on board.[32]This was confirmed on June 25, 2008, by producers Frank Marshall and Pat Crowley in an interview with IESB.net. Marshall said "Hopefully they will finish the script in 2010 and that they will be shooting in the summer of 2011 for a release in 2012 and our favorite anti-hero is apparently headed to South America."[33] On October 16, 2008, it was announced that George Nolfi would write the script, with Frank Marshall producing, and Jeffrey Weiner and Henry Morrison executive producing. Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, and Paul Greengrass were also attached to the film.[34][35][36] On August 21, 2009, it was announced that Universal had hired Josh Zetumer to help write the script.[37] Paul Greengrass has announced that he will not be directing.[38]
On February 1, 2010, Damon, speaking at the UK premiere of Invictus, revealed that a follow-up to The Bourne Ultimatum was "at least five years away". Greengrass, also at the premiere, re-stated that he would not be part of any further Bourne films "unless the right script came along". However, Damon revealed that in the meantime there may be a Bourne "prequel of some kind, with another actor and another director".[39] Matt Damon reconfirmed this on a March 10, 2010 appearance of Today and that he would only be involved if Greengrass was directing.[40]
In June, 2010, it was announced that Tony Gilroy will be writing The Bourne Legacy and it will have a 2012 release date.[41] In October, 2010, it was announced that Tony Gilroy will also be directing.[42]
On October 11, 2010, Gilroy confirmed that Damon would not return, that there would be a whole new hero. Gilroy further explained,
"This is not a reboot, it's a whole new chapter. The easiest way to think of it is an expansion or a reveal. Jason Bourne will not be in this film, but he's very much alive. What happened in the first three films is the trigger for The Bourne Legacy, and everyone who got into them will be rewarded for paying attention. I'm building a legend and an environment and a wider conspiracy. We're going to show you the bigger picture, the bigger canvas... The world we're making enhances and advances and invites Jason Bourne's reappearance somewhere down the road."[43]
